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Tasmanian devils were born in mainland Australia for the first time in 3,000 years, wildlife charity Aussie Ark announced. The non-profit announced in an Instagram post Monday that seven Tasmanian devil joeys were born at Barrington Wildlife Sanctuary after the species died out in the country due to predators and disease. "We have been working tirelessly for the better part of 10 years to return devils to the wild of mainland Australia with the hope that they would establish a sustainable population," the Aussie Ark said. "We had been watching them from afar until it was time to step in...

HOBART, Australia,- Tasmanian devils at Australian wildlife sanctuaries Friday were fed meat that had been held as evidence of supermarket theft. Detective Senior Constable Katrina Lane got permission to give the stolen meat to the devils, The (Hobart) Mercury reported. She said the meat, including ham, steak and other pricey cuts, was "wholly enjoyed and wolfed down" by the dog-sized marsupials at Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary and other refuges. Lane, an animal lover, went to Bonorong to watch the devils eating. "The meat, valued at $2,600, was stolen from various supermarkets around Hobart," she said. "It was later seized as evidence...

SYDNEY (AP) -- A Tasmanian devil named Cedric, once thought to be immune to a contagious facial cancer threatening the iconic creatures with extinction, has been euthanized after succumbing to the disease, researchers said Wednesday. The death of the devil - previously heralded as a possible key to saving the species - is another blow for scientists struggling to stop the rapid spread of the cancer, which is transmitted when the furry black marsupials bite each other.

The Tasmanian devil, the spaniel-size marsupial found on the Australian island of Tasmania, has been hurtling toward extinction in recent years, the victim of a bizarre and mysterious facial cancer that spreads like a plague. Now Australian scientists say they have discovered how the cancer originated. The finding, being reported Friday in the journal Science, sheds light on how cancer cells can sometimes liberate themselves from the hosts where they first emerged. On a more practical level, it also opens the door to devising vaccines that could save the Tasmanian devils. “It’s a great paper,” said Katherine Belov, a geneticist...

CANBERRA, Australia – The Tasmanian devil, a snarling fox-sized marsupial made notorious by its Looney Tunes cartoon namesake Taz, was listed in Australia as an endangered species Friday because of a contagious cancer that has wiped out most of the wild population. The upgrade from "vulnerable" under Australian environmental law entitles the world's largest marsupial carnivore to greater protection in the island state of Tasmania, Environment Minister Peter Garrett said in a statement. Devils do not exist in the wild outside Tasmania, although mainland zoos are breeding captive populations as a strategy against total extinction. Their numbers have declined by...

Writing for Time, a magazine on the brink, science-challenged eco writer and earth-doom hysteric Bryan Walsh describes a Planet On The Brink: It is the black-and-white indri, largest of the lemurs … the species — like many other lemurs, like many other animals in Madagascar, like so much of life on Earth — is endangered and dwindling fast. Time‘s editors would once have cut this sort of demented exaggeration. I know; I used to work there. But quality editing is, as Walsh might say, endangered and dwindling fast. Oddly, this runs parallel to magazine sales. Walsh continues: Through our growing...